News > 2016 > Alexandre Bédard wins the Award for the best master's thesis

Alexandre Bédard wins the Award for the best master's thesis

         

April 22, 2016

Congratulations to Alexandre Bédard (Applied Financial Economics specialization), who won the 2015 Award for the best master's thesis in the Master of Science in Administration (MSc) program, on April 21. His thesis, entitled Écarts salariaux entre les femmes et les hommes dans l’industrie financière américaine: une application des régressions quantiles non conditionnelles et de la décomposition d’Oaxaca-Blinder, impressed the jury. Only the top theses, i.e. those that had received a grade of A+, were considered for the award.

Alexandre’s thesis supervisor, Full Professor Daniel Parent, described it as the best that he had supervised in all his time in academia. It deals with wage disparities between women and men in the US financial industry since the 1980s. Alexandre’s research identified and quantified the reasons why these discrepancies are so wide in this industry in the United States, and confirms that women are discriminated against overall in this industry.

“This chronic problem of pay inequity sends a very poor signal to future generations of working women, by discouraging them from entering the financial industry, and thereby depriving the sector of a diversified workforce that reflects our society, as well as potential highly qualified women candidates,” he wrote in his submission letter. Alexandre and his thesis supervisor plan to fine-tune his thesis this coming summer with a view to publishing a scientific paper.

Congratulations also on their excellent work to the other six finalists for the award:

Alexandre-Bedard-2

Anne Bourhis, Director of the MSc program, Alexandre Bédard and Michel Patry, Director of HEC Montréal. Photo: Lily Serreau, Fondation HEC Montréal.